Image source, Getty Images. By. Umir Irfan. Football tactics correspondent. 1 hour ago. Changing the shape of your side for a big game will always draw attention. So Arne Slot put himself in the spotlight by setting up Liverpool with a back five against the champions of Europe.. The result – a 2-0 defeat by Paris St-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final – left Liverpool’s season hanging by a thread.. It was a surprising tweak. The only other time Liverpool have fielded a back five this season was in their Carabao Cup fourth-round defeat by Crystal Palace in October.. So why make that change? Did Slot get his tactics wrong? Or were PSG just too good?. Why PSG could bypass Liverpool high press. In Wednesday’s match, PSG had 74% of the ball and 18 shots to Liverpool’s three. These stats are damning but Liverpool didn’t set up to defend their own box for 90 minutes, despite starting with a back five.. Out of possession, they looked to press high – albeit without much success. Hugo Ekitike, Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz formed a narrow line between PSG’s defence and midfield. PSG dropped one of their midfielders back, forming a make-shift back three with the two central defenders.. Liverpool’s front three went man-to-man with these three players. Behind them were the remaining two PSG midfielders who were marked by Liverpool’s midfield duo. Liverpool’s wing-backs were tasked with marking Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes.. PSG rotated impressively to find players unmarked. Full-backs Hakimi and Mendes both pushed high up the pitch, pinning back Liverpool’s wing-backs. This prevented Liverpool having any presence in wide areas when they pressed.. With Liverpool’s midfield two marking PSG’s central midfielders, they were unable to pull into these wide areas either.. The French side dropped their attackers deep, into these empty wide positions with Liverpool’s back three reluctant to follow them out into these areas.. “I thought we could try and press them really high and aggressive,” Slot said. “Every time we tried to press them high and aggressive, those were the moments we got ripped apart.”. How Konate was exposed despite following instructions. On the night, Liverpool’s centre-backs were tasked with backing up the press when the players ahead of the ball applied pressure.. Ibrahima Konate, on the right, carried out these instructions throughout the game in support of Jeremie Frimpong – but the distances he ended up having to cover in an unfamiliar role left him exposed.. If he was slow to react, PSG would drop an attacker deep, who could then get on the ball, turn and drive at the defence, with space between him and an out-of-position Konate.. At times, Liverpool executed the press well, with their front three blocking PSG’s makeshift back three – before Frimpong jumped up to press whichever home player had rotated to the left side of defence.. PSG, however, adapted to this. The players in full-back areas took up deep
